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UK MORNING BRIEFING: Greene King Ups Spirit Pub Co Offer(Alliance News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 has opened slightly higher Monday, building on the gains made Friday and by equity markets in the US Friday and in Asia overnight.Irish drugmaker Shire has announced that its interim chief financial officer will leave at the end of the end of March, 2015, to become CFO of water company Severn Trent.Greene King has raised its takeover bid for Spirit Pub Company to about GBP723 million, and Spirit said it is likely to recommend the offer.Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:----------MARKETS----------FTSE 100: up 0.1% at 6,313.44FTSE 250: flat at 14,762.68AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 691.48----------Hang Seng: up 0.4% at 23,113.10Nikkei 225: closed up 4.0% at 15,111.23DJIA: closed up 1.6% at 16,380.41S&P 500: closed up 1.3% at 1,886.76----------GBP-USD: down at USD1.6098EUR-USD: down at USD1.2745GOLD: up at USD1,241.15 per ounceOIL (Brent): up at USD86.53 a barrel(changes since end of previous GMT day)----------ECONOMICS AND GENERAL----------Monday's Key Economic Events still to come (all times British Summer Time)09:00 EU Current Account09:00 Italy Industrial Orders and Sales13:30 Canada Wholesale Sales----------The average asking price of a house in the UK was up 2.6% on month in October, property tracking website Rightmove said on Monday, to GBP271,669. That follows the 0.9% increase in September. On a yearly basis, house prices rose 7.6% - slowing from the 7.9% jump in the previous month. By region, house prices jumped 10% in the south-east and 9.6% in London.----------Germany's producer prices decreased at a faster rate as expected in September, data from Destatis showed Monday. Producer prices fell 1% year-over-year in September following the 0.8% decrease in August. This was in line with the consensus estimate. Energy prices fell the most, by 3.8%. Prices of intermediate goods decreased by 0.3% in September.----------The US military dropped weapons for the first time to Kurdish fighters resisting attack by Islamic State militants in northern Syria, an official said late Sunday. Several US Air Force C-130 transport planes dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies - provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq - close to the besieged city of Kobane, which has been under attack by Islamic State fighters since mid September. The move was to contribute to the defence of the city, the US military central command said in Tampa, Florida.---------The Iraqi military said Sunday it had retaken several areas from the Islamic State militants in a northern enclave as part of a major counter-attack against the jihadists. Iraqi security forces secured a key route between the northern towns of Tikrit and Biji and killed "tens of terrorists," government-run al-Iraqiya TV reported, citing a military official. "The military operations, which began on Friday, have succeeded in their first phase in liberating some areas," said Khaled al-Khazraji, a senior army commander in the northern province of Salah al-Din. "The operations will continue to liberate other areas and cut the supply routes for the terrorist Daesh gangs," he told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.---------A key protest site for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong was calm Monday, after a weekend which saw numerous clashes with police and over two dozen arrests. Tensions rose over the weekend in the Mong Kok commercial and residential district in Kowloon - across the bay from Hong Kong island - as police used pepper spray against protesters, and arrested about 26 people. Five police officers were reported to have been injured. In a television interview over the weekend, the island's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, accused "external forces" of being involved in the unrest, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported Monday.---------Belgium was to begin screening arriving passengers from Ebola-hit countries Monday, Prime Minister Charles Michel said, after workers at the country's main airport threatened labour action. Belgium and France are the only countries in Europe with direct flights to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the West African countries hit hardest by the epidemic of the deadly hemorrhagic fever. With EU members including Britain, the Netherlands and Germany calling for greater support for international efforts to halt the disease at the source in West Africa, the bloc's foreign ministers are slated to discuss Ebola at talks Monday in Luxembourg. EU leaders are expected to take up the issue at a summit Thursday and Friday in Brussels.---------Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he has reached a deal with Russia to ensure supplies of natural gas to his country this winter. The two sides agreed that Ukraine would pay USD385 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas between now and March 31, Poroshenko said in a nationally televised interview on Saturday night. That is a much lower figure than the USD485 that Russian energy giant Gazprom had so far been demanding.---------BROKER RATING CHANGES---------TRADERS: UBS RAISES MAN GROUP TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL')---------TRADERS: JPMORGAN CUTS EVRAZ TO 'UNDERWEIGHT' ('NEUTRAL')---------Liberum Upgrades EasyJet To Buy From Hold, Maintains 1,650p PT---------Liberum Upgrades Ryanair To Buy From Hold, PT Increased To EUR8.50 From EUR7.10----------Numis Initiates Hunting With Reduce Rating, PT 661p----------COMPANIES - FTSE 100----------Irish drugmaker Shire said it had started an immediate search for a new chief financial officer, after James Bowling, who was interim CFO, decided to leave to become CFO Of Severn Trent. Shire said Bowling will leave at the end of the first quarter of 2015. Water company Severn Trent confirmed that Bowling will be joining, after current CFO Mike McKeon gave notice that he has decided to retire with effect from spring 2015. McKeon will be staying in post to ensure an orderly handover, it added.----------COMPANIES - FTSE 250----------Spirit Pub Company said it is open to recommending a higher takeover proposal from rival Greene King that values the company at about GBP723 million. Under the revised proposals, Spirit Pub shareholders would receive 0.1322 Greene King shares per Spirit share they own and a cash payment of 8 pence, including any 2014 final dividend, representing an indicative value of about 109.5 pence per share, based on the closing price of Greene King shares on Friday. Spirit last month rejected a GBP661 million takeover approach from Greene King for undervaluing it and its prospects.----------Close Brothers Group has sold its securities business in Germany to investment banking and capital management company Oddo & Cie for EUR46 million, with the proceeds to be reinvested into the FTSE 250 merchant bank's core businesses of lending, wealth management and securities trading in the UK. Close Brothers said it expects to record a one-off profit on disposal of Close Brothers Seydler Bank AG of about GBP10 million.----------COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM----------President Energy said it has made its first oil discovery at the Lapacho well in Paraguay, finding conventional light oil and condensate which it expects to be commercial following further planned tests and drilling. President has continued drilling the Lapacho well to reach its original target, the 400 metre thick Santa Rosa formation, and the company said that once the QG1 rig has finished drilling the well, it is considering moving it so it can re-enter its suspended Jacaranda well, also in Paraguay. President plans to commence first phase production during 2015 subject to successful testing.----------Shares in TXO were given a boost early Monday after the company said investee company Oil Tech Royalties Inc has signed a deal in Kuwait to commercialise its technology in the country. Oil Tech, in which TXO holds a 30% stake, has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Abdulaziz Abdulmohsin Al-Rashed Sons WLL for the commercialisation of its proprietary acoustic flow reactor valve.----------Daisy Group said it has recommended the lower cash offer made by a consortium led by its chief executive, in a deal that values the company at around GBP494 million. Daisy on Friday said the bidding consortium, which comprises its Chief Executive Officer Matthew Riley, Toscafund Asset Management LLP and Penta Capital LLP, was considering lowering its bid for the company to 185 pence per share, from 190 pence per share. The preliminary offer of 190 pence per share was made by the consortium in July and the two parties have been in talks since.----------Outsourcing and recruitment company Servoca said its results for its recently-ended financial year will be significantly ahead of market expectations, boosted by a trading improvement in the second half. The group said the September period, which is important for its Education recruitment arm, was very positive and was a notable improvement on the previous year. It also said its trading in the second half was boosted by the performance and profitability of its Healthcare division.----------McBride said it has made a solid start to the financial year, with revenue in constant currency terms returning to "modest" growth, in line with its expectations. In a statement ahead of the company's annual general meeting, the maker of private label household and personal care products added that the UK business restructuring project, which it had announced in June, is on track to generate the planned savings of GBP12 million by June 30, 2016, of which GBP3 million will benefit the current financial year ending June 30, 2015.----------COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL----------Lufthansa long-haul pilots announced Monday they would be joining part of the industrial action planned by their short- and medium-haul colleagues over changes to their retirement plans. The long-haul pilots would walk out from 6 am local time Tuesday to 11:59 pm, the Cockpit union said. Short- and medium-haul pilots on Sunday said they would stop work from 1 pm local time Monday until 11:59 pm Tuesday. It is the German airline's eighth strike since April as pilots are protesting a new wage contract with a later retirement age.----------Royal Philips reported a third-quarter loss from continuing operations of EUR92 million, compared to net income from continuing operations of EUR270 million in the prior year. Net loss per share to shareholders was EUR0.11 euros, compared to profit of EUR0.31. The group said the year-on-year decrease reflects higher charges related to incidental items and lower operational results, partially offset by lower income tax and higher results from investments in associates.----------German business software maker SAP SE Monday said third-quarter profit attributable to owners of parent rose to EUR880 million from EUR762 million in the previous year. Earnings per share advanced to 0.73 euro from 0.64 euro. The results are on the basis of IFRS. Total revenue grew 5% to 4.254 billion euros from 4.045 billion euros reported last year. According to SAP, non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue increased 41%, and non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue grew 7%. The company is raising its cloud outlook again and now expects full year 2014 non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue to be in a range of EUR1.04 - EUR1.07 billion from the previous range of EUR1.00 - EUR1.05 billion, at constant currencies, compared to EUR757 million reported in 2013. The upper end of this range represents a growth rate of 41%.-----------International Business Machines Corp. agreed to pay Globalfoundries Inc., an investment arm of the government of Abu Dhabi, USD1.5 billion to take over its unprofitable chip-manufacturing unit, Bloomberg said, quoting two people with knowledge of the matter. IBM will also receive USD200 million worth of assets, which will make the net value of the deal USD1.3 billion.-----------Monday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMsTangiers PetroleumSpectra SystemsCPL ResourcesMcBride----------Contact: +44 203 668 7440; [email protected]; @AllNewsTeam Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. |